If an independentista has been in a coma for the last five years of his life, he will not understand anything when he wakes up. Catalonia is still part of Spain, 60 months later Gabriel Rufián is still a deputy in Congress for the province of Barcelona, they no longer do FAQs on TV3, and Pilar Rahola writes for El Periódico.
If a Spaniard has been in a coma for the last five years, he will see that Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría works in Cuatrecasas, Inés Arrimadas is turning Ciudadanos into a solar, Albert Rivera has had a son with Malú, and Carlos Lesmes continues to preside over the Spanish judiciary with the expired position and it is allowed to warn of how badly the social communist government is doing that dares to pardon independentistas or propose reforms of the Penal Code.
The autumn earthquake of 2017 has had different aftershocks and one of the few things that remain standing, despite being in dust, is the coalition government that presides over the Generalitat. They don't speak. They don't go anywhere together. They sleep in separate beds. Their coexistence has no reason to be, but there are many mouths to feed, and who would explain it to children.
That September and that October. We will hardly live again such revolutionary moments, so distressing and, why not say it, so childish. With the perspective of five years, it seems unbelievable that some of the decisions that were made were made.
The rulers were carried away by collective illusion or by selective repression. They did not have the courage to tell their own what they did not want to hear. They took advantage of the fact that it was cheaper for citizens to feel than to think. And they decided to make the staff believe that “now is the time”, that “tenim pressa” or that “go for them” was the solution. Slogans that today provoke embarrassment.
They promised that everything was ready and that they would go from law to law. Or that there would be no referendum, no ballot boxes, no ballots, nothing. Some were bluffing. They lied to the public knowing that this was the trip to nowhere. But as long as there were things left to feel, no one would make the mistake of thinking. The others felt mocked. And they fought the mockery of an entire State with batons and with judges willing to continue tensing and imprisoning politicians.
A part of the Catalan citizenry has been very benevolent with its representatives: either it has accepted the deception, or it refuses to accept it. It is easier to be lied to than to accept that you have been lied to. Another part watches in amazement as the politicians who sold them the illusion of reaching the island of Ithaca are now satisfied with surviving on The Island of Temptations. Our guild did not do very well during those months either. Journalism got so close to the facts that too many journalists ended up being part of them. We took sides and lost the tone. Consequence: there was more propaganda than information.
Tomorrow is the Diada. Those who regard the independence movement as disjointed are mistaken. With days like yesterday in Rodalies, the independence movement will continue to have reasons to be. Now the duel is happening. And waiting for his Lewandowski to recover the illusion. Even if he put us eight with Bayern. Although they say that he is 34 years old. What will they know?
Only a political Lewandowski can turn the situation around. While they find him and to try, Laporta, with that eye that seems to come from Urquinaona, can take the Pole tomorrow to the floral offering to the Rafael Casanova monument. A Pole raising the morale of the troops. Poetry. Another master move. Will this fantasy come true? Tomorrow the answer.
